WHO are we? This fundamental question has always exercised humanity. One way to approach it is to look at our origins and the evolutionary journey we have taken. Today, thanks to powerful new tools, we can look at the lives of our ancestors in unprecedented detail: the meals they ate, their relationships. And through their art and other practices, we can even get hints about their beliefs about the world.
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Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at Durham University in the UK, is keen to share the 鈥渕any untold stories鈥� with us in his book, Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The scientific revolution rewriting our origins.
We are in good hands. As a specialist in prehistoric art, dating techniques and how ancient peoples dealt with the dead (鈥渕ortuary activities鈥� as they call it in the field), Pettitt has been at the forefront of major finds. He was part of the team behind the 2003 discovery of Britain鈥檚 only known Palaeolithic cave art 鈥� engravings of a deer and abstract signs carved more than 13,000 years ago at Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge in England. Then there was the 2018 research he co-authored with its big reveal: Neanderthals made the world鈥檚 oldest cave art.
His book lives up to its subtitle, with the 鈥渟cientific revolution rewriting our origins鈥� as a major theme. Using DNA sequencing, we can now make big discoveries from the tiniest scrap of bone. For example, DNA from the smallest finger bone, found in a Siberian cave, revealed the existence of the Denisovans, a mysterious sister group to the Neanderthals. Just as exciting is other genetic analysis showing that H. sapiens bred with both of these other humans.
Other tools are also proving their worth. Analyses of isotopes in the stalactites that can form over cave paintings have shown that many are far older than we thought. And the isotopes in teeth and bones can reveal surprising details about an individual鈥檚 diet, such as how river fish were a crucial part of the diet of H. sapiens in Europe between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago, perhaps as a fallback for the times when the game they mainly relied on wasn鈥檛 available. In fact, Pettitt argues that this ability to adapt in tough times might have been a key factor for survival during the bleakest days of the last glacial period.
But it is beliefs and behaviours that most interest Pettitt 鈥� getting a glimpse of the inner lives of long-dead people through the drawings they made on cave walls and the way they treated their dead.
The book takes us on a vivid journey through this prehistoric world, starting with the earliest origins of the Homo genus and its forebears in Africa, and the subsequent migrations of humans around the world. But Pettitt鈥檚 major stopping-off point is Europe from around 40,000 years ago, where we visit paintings in the back of dark caves and campsites built out of mammoth bones.
Pettitt鈥檚 personal experiences make for good stories. He writes that working in the Altamira cave in northern Spain, with its stunning images of bison that appear to drip out of the ceiling, was 鈥渢he closest thing to a religious experience I鈥檝e had鈥�. He also describes the sadness he felt looking at the red-stained bones of two infants in Austria, who had died around 30,000 years ago and were buried curled up together as if they had fallen asleep.
It is the little details he gives that bring this world alive, such as a 鈥渞emarkably soft and warm鈥� shawl made from nettle fibre, a recreation of a fabric that was probably made by people living in what are now Slovakia and the Czech Republic around 30,000 years ago. In fact, we have prehistoric humans to thank for many things: sewing needles and tailored clothing, jewellery, burial of the dead, art, dogs, weapons, tents, lamps and villages.
One disappointment was that a key finding in the field is barely discussed: the discovery of cave art in Indonesia that is comparable with 鈥� and as old as 鈥� that found in Europe, suggesting it was widespread among humans before this time.
Despite this, Homo Sapiens Rediscovered is a good place to start if you want a vivid view of where we have come from and what makes us who we are.
